Too poor to look after the vulnerable, but...

[JFKvsNixon]

Then surely non proliferation is the cure...not spending £50billion on upgrades.

 

How would you guard against nuclear blackmail?

[Eric Arthur]

Then surely non proliferation is the cure...

 

You go first. The clue is in the phrase "Trident replacement". because the UK is already a signatory to the UN non-proliferation treaty.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Eric Arthur

[unbeliever]

Convention forces of comparable strength are way, way more expensive so you can't save a penny by scrapping trident. Quite the reverse in fact.

 

You're talking about £5billion/year which is mostly spent on goods and services provided by the UK people.

Total public spending in the UK is over £700billion.

 

Anybody who thinks we don't need a national defence was obviously hiding somewhere quiet smoking something funny when everybody else was in history lessons.

 

How is this magical idea of non-proliferation to be achieved?

[Vague_Boy]

Erm, by intelligence, conventional weapons, soldiers, you know the stuff that we've been using for the past 50 years.

 

From 1965 (50 years ago) to the end of the 1980s we had the Cold War. I doubt if the British Army or conventional weapons cut much ice with the Warsaw Pact.

 

Now you might say that in retaining a nuclear deterrent, Britain is punching above its weight. Possibly. However, our current Vanguard-class subs (Vanguard, Victorious, Vigilant and Vengeance) were built in Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, so a lot of the money went into creating jobs in this country.

 

Likewise the £500 million will create "thousands of jobs". Isn't that what you lefties want? The government to be spending money and creating well-paid jobs, not just zero hours contract/minimum wage stuff.

 

That's what you say you want anyway.

[truman]

Or moats or duck houses.

 

Or mortgage fraud...

[Hots on]

How would you guard against nuclear blackmail?

 

Exactly.

 

Nuclear weapons are horrible things but you can't uninvent them. That genie is out of the bottle and can't be put back in.

 

God help us all if the SNP, CND and green idiots (and their American equivalents) ever got their way and unilaterally did away with our Nukes.

[alchresearch]

Time for an appropriate Yes (Prime) Minister reference:

 

 

It amazes me how things never change and its just as accurate today as it was then.

[unbeliever]

Exactly.

 

Nuclear weapons are horrible things but you can't uninvent them. That genie is out of the bottle and can't be put back in.

 

God help us all if the SNP, CND and green idiots (and their American equivalents) ever got their way and unilaterally did away with our Nukes.

 

I suppose we could switch to VX.

[plantas_Vzla]

what I wonder more is how much money could a country spend on feeding animals. I hope some day those statistics come to surface. I bet they are quite ridiculous compared to defense expenses.

[alchemist]

And if an enemy's missiles were speeding over here to wipe out massive areas the last words uttered by some maybe " I wish we had kept Trident as a deterrent to stop this happening ".

 

Well they can always have a look at how things are going in Norway, Sweden Italy, Greece Turkey...... After all they are under the danger of being wiped out every day because they dont have a "nuclear deterrant" do they? I bet the Chinse and North Koreans are itching to attack them. No?? So why would they be itching to attack the UK?